Foo Fighters Drummer Works With Queen Members On Side Project

[lastfm]Foo Fighters [/lastfm]drummer [lastfm]Taylor Hawkins[/lastfm] and his side project, the [lastfm]Coattail Riders[/lastfm], released their second album, Red Light Fever, last month. According to Hawkins, the band had help from some rock royalty on the project.

In a recent interview with Spinner.com, Hawkins revealed that he not only enlisted fellow Foo Fighter [lastfm]Dave Grohl[/lastfm], but also rock icons [lastfm]Brian May [/lastfm]and [lastfm]Roger Taylor[/lastfm] from [lastfm]Queen[/lastfm].

“They’re like mentors, musical heroes – the harmonies, the dramatics and stops and starts in Queen’s music, I always liked that,” Hawkins says. “They almost influenced the record once they put their parts on it, because they were involved early on and led me in that over-the-top direction. The first record, I didn’t really do all the harmonies. Here, I decided to go that way.”

Hawkins went on to explain that while he welcomed May and Taylor’s dramatic flair, he also worked hard to keep the album simple.

“We wanted to make it like the [lastfm]Knack[/lastfm], tight, little garage rock,” Hawkins said. “I was more self-conscious on the first record, so I kept it low-key, just so no-one would think I was going to do a Sgt. Pepper’s.”